Planning Portal Blog

The Government has clarified the planning regime for shale gas applications and outlined the circumstances which could trigger ministerial intervention.

The administration has also set out the criteria for identifying under-performing planning authorities in respect of shale gas exploration and development schemes.

This will be separate from the existing statutory system for identifying under-performing local authorities. It will be similar but non-statutory.

Under these new arrangements a table setting out local planning authority performance on speed of decision making, specifically on onshore oil and gas applications, will be added to DCLG’s quarterly planning application statistical release, starting with the one published this week.

The measure of speed of decision making and the assessment period will be the same as those set out for major development. The same threshold will also apply for the identification of local planning authority underperformance in respect of its oil and gas applications as for the designation of underperformance in respect of major development, currently 50 per cent or fewer applications being made within the statutory determination period or such extended period as has been agreed in writing by the applicant.

Ministers will identify any underperforming local planning authorities in respect of oil and gas applications annually, in the final quarter of each calendar year. Where a local planning authority is identified as underperforming in respect of planning applications for oil and gas, it will remain as such for a period of one year.

In a Parliamentary statement Communities Secretary Greg Clark also confirmed that his call-in powers would be amended to specifically cover onshore oil and gas application appeals.

View the written statement

Roger Milne

Ministers should consult on bringing large-scale housing schemes within the Planning Act 2008 regime for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), a report commissioned by law firm Bond Dickinson and planning consultants Quod has urged.

The report, based on the views of housing and planning experts in both the public and private sectors, claimed that use of the NSIP regime could harness the power of the private sector and “relieve hard-pressed local authority budgets”.

Less than half the estimated 240,000 new homes needed each year were completed in 2014, and the last six years had seen the lowest level of house building since the Second World War, it added.

The report insisted that there was widespread support for creating new settlements on the scale of the post-war New Towns to address the housing crisis.

However, it argued that this was unlikely to happen without policy and legislation that overcame the current barriers to bringing forward large-scale housing and mixed use projects within the current planning system.

The report noted recent research suggesting that only 25 per cent of local planning authorities had a local plan which had been adopted as sound since the publication of the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012.

The NSIP regime’s advantages included fixed timescales for decision-making, a single consenting process that includes compulsory purchase, and the confidence provided by the upfront establishment of need.

Other ways of delivering large-scale housing were reviewed for the report, including existing mechanisms such as Urban Development Corporations, updated New Towns legislation, the use of expanded Local Development Orders, some form of deregulated New Homes Zone, and new proposals such as garden city commissions. However all of these “rely on the public sector to rise to the challenge,” argued the report.

Quod director John Rhodes, who was last week appointed by the Government to chair a panel examining ways to streamline local plans, said: “Remedying the chronic under-provision of housing should be an economic and a social priority.

“At present, however, developers are denied access to the national infrastructure planning process for housing proposals and thereby denied the use of the single most effective regime for delivering development.

“With appropriate safeguards in place, the use of the NSIP regime would transform the ability of the private sector to make a meaningful contribution to the national housing crisis.”

View the press release

Roger Milne

Police are investigating allegations that the chairman of a Staffordshire council’s planning committee abused his position.

Michael Worthington, chairman of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s planning committee, was caught on camera saying he was “under instructions” to vote a certain way. He denies being influenced to approve a planning application.

His comments were made after the planning committee he chaired voted in favour of a planning application for up to 10 new homes on the site of Endon Riding School near the village of Endon which is six miles north-east of Stoke-on-Trent. Officers had recommended the scheme should be rejected.

Campaign group the Whiston Action Group passed their allegations to police and wrote to the Prime Minister calling for a public inquiry.

Staffordshire Police confirmed it had received “an allegation of ‘misfeasance in public office’ and the matter has been passed to our investigative services for them to review.”

Mark Trillo, executive director and monitoring officer at the local authority, said: “The council has received complaints in relation to this planning application and these complaints are now being considered in accordance with the council’s procedures.

“In the meantime, given the issues that have been raised, the application was reconsidered at the planning applications committee last Thursday”. It was refused.

View the story on the BBC news website

Roger Milne

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Scotland has voiced dismay that the independent panel announced last week by the Scottish Government to review the planning system does not have a chartered planner on it.

Pam Ewen, RTPI Scotland convener said: “While the members of the panel bring a lot of expertise, I am astonished and very disappointed that there is not a planner on the panel with recent practical experience of the planning system.

“The success of the review will depend upon knowledge and expertise of how the planning system works from the inside as well as the outside.”

The RTPI has written to planning minister Alex Neill requesting that a chartered planner plays a role in an advisory capacity.

The institute’s concern surfaced after Neill announced an independent panel to conduct what was described as a “game-changing” review of Scotland’s planning system. Its role is to bring together ideas for “a quicker, more accessible and efficient” planning process.

The three-person panel includes representatives of Planning Aid Scotland and the Scottish Property Federation.

It will examine issues such as development planning, housing delivery, infrastructure development, and resourcing and community engagement.

It will be led by Crawford Beveridge, who chairs the Scottish government’s Council of Economic Advisers. The panel is due to report back in spring 2016.

View the press release

Roger Milne

Northern Ireland Environment Minister Mark H Durkan has launched a new statutory development plan designed to boost balanced growth, development and tourism in the Causeway Coast and Glens Council area.

The Northern Area Plan came into force this week. It covers around 14 per cent of Northern Ireland’s land area and over eight per cent of the Province’s population.

The blueprint recognises not only the importance of developing the larger towns of Coleraine, Limavady, Ballymoney and Moyle but also small towns and villages as rural service centres by identifying development of an appropriate scale to sustain rural communities.

It promotes the continued development of Coleraine and Limavady as main hubs, and Ballymoney and Ballycastle as local hubs as well as recognising residential, recreational and tourism potential of Portrush and Portstewart while enhancing their character and identity.

The plan Identifies appropriate development land, within the six towns of Ballykelly, Bushmills, Cushendall, Dungiven, Garvagh and Kilrea and 25 villages and 34 small settlements within the plan area.

The strategy complements existing environmental protection by designating Local Landscape Policy Areas, Sites of Local Nature Conservation Importance and the Dunluce Area of Significant Archaeological Interest with associated policies for their protection from inappropriate development.

The plan also proposes Areas of Townscape Character in Armoy, Coleraine, Limavady and Portrush where appropriate design guidance will protect their existing character.

View the press release

Roger Milne

Latest figures show housing approvals are on the up

During the second quarter of this year district level planning authorities in England received 123,500 applications for planning permission, up less than one per cent from the corresponding quarter of 2014.

Decisions were up three per cent from the same quarter in 2014 and the planning authorities decided 78 per cent of major applications within 13 weeks or the agreed time, down from 79 per cent a year earlier. These latest official figures showed that the LPAs granted 11,300 residential applications, up 10 per cent on a year earlier.

In the year ending June 2015, district level planning authorities granted 362,800 decisions, up four per cent from the figure for the year ending June 2014. Some 44,900 of the granted decisions were for residential developments.

Of 11,000 applications received for prior approval for permitted development rights during April to June 2015, prior approval was not required for 6,400, with permission being granted for 2,600 applications and refused for 2,100.

A total of 75 per cent of all applications related to larger householder extensions, with 9 per cent relating to agricultural to residential changes and 8 per cent relating to office to residential changes.

View the planning application statistics

Warning over changes to environmental challenges cost protection regime

A leading planning barrister, Jenny Wigley of No 5 Chambers, has warned that the government’s latest proposals on cost protection rules in environmental challenges could “drastically reduce the costs certainty currently afforded to judicial review claimants”.

The current limits in relation to costs liability are £5,000 for individual claimants and £10,000 for organisations. The liability of the defendant is limited to £35,000. Proposals now out for consultation could raise the standard cost caps to £10,000 for individuals, £20,000 for organisations and reduce the reciprocal cap to £25,000.

The Ministry of Justice has also started consulting on the scope of the regime in terms of the types of cases that are eligible for costs protection and whether the regime should be extended to apply to certain reviews under statute like recovered appeals.

View the consultation

Transport developments

The case for the HS2 high-speed rail line came under fire during a debate on the economics of the project in the House of Lords.

Peers lined up to criticise the scheme, the first phase of which is due to operate from London to Birmingham starting in 2026.

Businessman Lord Hollick, a Labour peer and chairman of the House’s Economic Affairs Committee which published a critical report on the scheme, complained: “Much of the evidence presented to justify HS2 is either defective or unconvincing or out of date.”

He told the Upper Chamber: “While investment outside London is long overdue, the committee was not convinced that the government had shown that HS2 is the best way of stimulating growth in the cities of the north and the Midlands.

“If London commuters benefit the most from the increase in capacity and London benefits the most economically, HS2 could actually widen the north/south divide.”

Meanwhile Birmingham’s revamped New Street Station was opened at the weekend. The station now has a new concourse, a huge atrium and a shopping complex.

View more information on HS2

Energy project round-up

• Ministers have given EdF Energy a s36 consent for a second gas-fired power station at Sutton Bridge near Kings Lynn which has been under consideration since 2005.The business case for the 1,800 megawatt combined cycle gas turbine plant has yet to be settled.
• Green energy company Estover has announced plans for a multi—million pound biomass fuelled facility at Cramlington in Northumberland which would provide both heat and power.
• Consultants acting for Derbyshire Dales District Council have recommended that the local authority’s currently withdrawn local plan should proceed on the basis that some 6,440 new homes need to be built over their plan period up to 2033. That figure is over 2,000 dwellings more than the original strategy catered for and represents an annual building rate of 322 homes annually, taking into account population growth, employment needs and affordable housing provision.
• Planning permission has been granted for two turbines that will create England’s largest onshore wind farm. Peel Energy and United Utilities want to add a further 16 turbines to the existing 26 at Scout Moor, on land between Rochdale and Rossendale. Rochdale Borough Council gave the go-ahead for the final two at a meeting this week.  Rossendale Borough Council approved the other 14 at the beginning of the month.

Basement bill

A bill designed to help local planning authorities restrict the size and depth of basement development has had its first reading in the House of Commons. The proposed legislation has been drawn up by Westminster North Labour MP Karen Buck.

View more information

Go-ahead for giant warehouse project at Didcot

Corporate Pension Fund clients of Savills Investment Management (formerly Cordea Savills) and Lingfield Securities Plc have been granted outline planning permission for a new industrial and warehouse development called Giant at Didcot Distribution Park, Oxfordshire.

The scheme involves 87,720 square metres of grade-A warehouse and office accommodation set across 26.3 hectares. This includes outline planning permission for a single cross docked unit of 77,316 square metres. This represents the largest facility of this kind located in the A34 corridor in the Thames Valley.

View the press release

Sandwich flood prevention

A £24.6m flood defence scheme has been completed in Sandwich, the largest to be built in Kent for 30 years. The Environment Agency said the new defences would protect 488 homes and 94 commercial properties in the town, including the Discovery Park business zone. Funding came from the Agency, Kent County Council and Discovery Park’s former owners Pfizer.

View more information

Wiltshire landmark to be demolished

An industrial chimney which has loomed over part of Wiltshire’s countryside for decades is to be demolished.

The Westbury cement works were constructed in the early 1960s and mothballed in 2009. In a bid to attract investors, non-operational parts of the site, including the 122 metre-high chimney, are to be cleared.

The structure will be brought down with a series of controlled explosions, site owners Tarmac said. The chimney is just short of the height of the spire at Salisbury Cathedral.

View the story on the BBC news website

Dorset round-up

• A combined south-east Dorset “super council” could be formed by four local authorities in the sub-region. The proposed alliance is between Bournemouth, Christchurch, East Dorset and Poole authorities. The unitary authority would serve a combined population of about 487,000 people. All four councils now need to formally agree the proposal by spring 2016. If agreed, the new council would be formed in April 2019.
• The redevelopment of the site of St Leonards Hospital on green belt land near Ferndown with 210 new homes has been given the go ahead by East Dorset District Council. Around 40 per cent of the housing will be affordable .The homes will be built within the former military hospital site which still contains three working NHS facilities.
• Meanwhile Purbeck District Council has applied for land at the Dorset Green Technology Park, a strategic employment site near Wool, to have Enterprise Zone status.
• Dorchester’s former prison could be transformed into 200 flats under new plans unveiled to the public by developer City & Country who bought the mainly Victorian property in February. An earlier proposal to turn the building into a hotel has been discounted as unviable.

London round-up

• Croydon Council has published its local plan outlining the growth and development strategy for the south London borough between 2016 and 2036 when it estimates some 30,000 new homes will be needed.
• Meanwhile in a separate but related development ministers have confirmed the compulsory purchase order (CPO) required to bring together land for the £1bn Westfield/Hammerson development which involves the transformation of the existing Whitgift shopping centre and the provision of new retail, leisure, restaurant facilities as well as hundreds of new homes.
• A new study by business lobbying company London First and property consultancy Savills has concluded that up to 1.4 million more homes could be built in London by increasing housing densities in the capital in areas, particular in outer London, with good existing or potential public transport links.
• Southwark Council has granted outline planning permission for the proposed ‘Quill’ tower near London Bridge underground station so it can be developed into luxury flats rather than student accommodation. The scheme involves an offer of the equivalent to 28 per cent affordable housing provision off-site against a local planning policy target of 35 per cent.
• Residents fighting the redevelopment of the Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant sorting office which straddles the boundary between Islington and Camden Councils have joined forces with investor Legal and General and a housing association to bid for part of the site.
• The Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation has appointed Design Council Cabe to a key new role that will aim to ensure all new developments on the largest regeneration site in London meet the very highest of design standards.

Buckinghamshire and Horsham neighbourhood plan referendums

Last week’s referendum organised by Aylesbury Vale District Council on the Buckingham Neighbourhood Plan resulted in a swingeing 91 per cent of those who voted approving the strategy. The turnout was just over 21 per cent.

Horsham District Council has cancelled the referendum over the Henfield Neighbourhood Plan (due this week) to allow more time for consultation over potential development sites in the area of West Sussex covered by the plan.

View more information on the Buckingham Neighbourhood Development Plan

View more information on the Henfield Neighbourhood Plan

New blue-tinged planning think-tank

Property lawyer Hannah David, who stood as a prospective Conservative candidate at the last general election, has set up a new think-tank called Planning Futures dedicated to “nurturing a new conversation about planning in the UK”.

She says the entity will take an “intelligent, open-minded, pragmatic, evidence-based approach” to planning issues.

David insisted that the think-tank will be cross-party and will “host events and publish cutting-edge research aimed at finding new ways forward for planners, politicians and community groups as they seek to plan the future for our communities.”

View the planning futures website

Legal round-up

• A man has been found guilty of breaching an enforcement notice in relation to the illegal development of a gypsy camp at a site in Berkshire’s green belt.
• An animal protection group campaigning against the breeding of dogs for medical experiments has applied for a judicial review of the planning permission granted by former communities secretary Sir Eric Pickles for a site in East Yorkshire.
• Nplaw has won a two-year, £100,000 contract to provide s.106 drafting and negotiating services for Maldon District Council in Essex.

• A campaigning group has launched a High Court challenge over planning permission won on appeal for a crematorium on town council-owned land north of Cromer cemetery originally refused by North Norfolk District Council.

Planning wrangles

• A ‘Shed of the Year’ finalist from Cornwall faces having his creation pulled down in a planning row. Jonathan Melville Smith, 62, crafted the 80 square foot shed out of recycled wood in his back garden and currently rents it out as a unique holiday home. The property is set to be demolished after neighbours complained about the smell from its chemical toilets and smoke from the wood burner. Retrospective planning approval was rejected by Cornwall Council
• A young boy’s play house is scheduled to be pulled down after Oldham Council refused his parents planning permission for the structure which stands 1.75 metres high in the front garden. A neighbour complained about the scheme.
• Two dozen possibly over-sized and wrongly-positioned beach huts in Weston-Super-Mare are being assessed by North Somerset District Council (which built them) after a complaint they are bigger than proposed in the planning application and take up more of the promenade. The year-long leases for the 24 huts were sold online earlier this year.

Roger Milne

Energy minister Lord Bourne has announced development consent has been refused for the proposed Navitus Bay offshore wind park involving some 194 turbines set to be located between 14 and 17 kilometres off the Dorset and Isle of Wight coasts.

The scheme was the brainchild originally of Eneco, a Dutch energy company, later joined by EDF Energy, a French one. It was examined by a team of four planning inspectors between September 2014 and March 2015. They recommended refusal.

The most significant aspect of the examination was that in response to opposition to the proximity of the proposed wind farm to the coast, the promoters put forward an alternative option where just the seaward half of the wind farm would be built, reducing the number of turbines to 76-105.

The scheme met a huge amount of opposition partly because of its proximity to Dorset’s so-called Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage site. There were also fears the scheme would hit tourism. Local Tory MPs were very vocal in their opposition.

The decision letter made it clear that although the World Heritage Site is a geological one, the visual impact of the turbines on the site was sufficient to refuse the project.

This is only the second large offshore wind farm to be refused, the other one was Docking Shoal off the Lincolnshire coast which was considered before the Planning Act 2008 regime came into force.

Infrastructure planning expert Angus Walker, a partner with law firm BDB, said: “Characterising this as a huge blow for renewable energy is probably going a bit far.

“All the other offshore wind farms promoted under the Planning Act 2008 have been approved, this one is something of a special case given its proximity to the coast, although the Rampion wind farm off the Sussex coast was about the same distance and has been approved.

“The Conservatives’ opposition to onshore wind is well known, and this decision suggests that near-shore wind farms are also vulnerable.”

View the news story

Roger Milne